Differences between a druid and a shaman?

[MrSaggins]

I believe the answer to your question is that both Druids and Shamen rely on alternate planes of existence for their source of power. Druids use the sans-sentient blueprint of Azeroth, the Emerald Dream, to manipulate themselves and life around them. Shamen ask for aid from the elemental spirits bound in the Elemental Plane, and can also draw on animal spirits and their ancestors.

A Druid cannot cast a ball of fire, and a Shaman cannot feel the pain of a tree. Deepholm, the Earthen Plane of Therazane does not boast a great deal of living creatures. She has her mushrooms and bog giants, but beyond that everything is made of gems and stones. The living, breathing force of nature is the heart of the Emerald Dream and the realm of the Druid. The elements around us that are the fundamental ingredients for nature are the realm of the Shaman.

That's all fine and sweet Krazzorx, but Druids still have spells that summon Wind ( Typhoon, Cyclone ), Storm ( Hurricane ) and then there's the Fire Druids.

Where do those come from, if not the Elements?

As The Dream is Azeroth proper void of sentient life, and the Elemental Plane is a separate dimension with no direct connection to The Dream I feel like this might answer your question about Fire Druids. Druids can control The Dream and parts of Azeroth, but they can't commune with the Elemental Plane. Shaman can commune with the Elemental Plane and control facets of Azeroth, but they cannot connect to The Dream. A Fire Druid is a Druid that can connect to the Emerald Dream and wield the powers of the Plane of Fire; and this is only possible because of Ragnaros' merging of the plane of fire with the natural world which puts the Plane of Fire under the influence of the Emerald Dream. Get it?

As to the Druids' connection with the spirits, I'm not really sure how that goes down. I took it that the Emerald Dream is a mirrored reflection of the living forces of the real world, and anything residing within is a doppelganging mirror of a true self, rather than a deceased incorporeal form. Shamen on the other hand specifically deal with the deceased in the spirit world, and the spirits they call upon that allow them to speak with ancestors and summon ghost wolves have nothing to do with The Dream or Elemental Plane but rather the plane of the dead, which predates those Titan constructed realms.

But it gets messy no matter how you slice it because Druids still deal with tangible deceased spirits of nature, aka wisps, and Night Elves even become wisps when they die. Troll Druids even draw their power from Loa, deceased spirits revered by their people, and these Loa (I.E. the raptor Gonk) know the secrets of the Emerald Dream. My best guess for you is that the Titans somehow built a bridge between the spirit world and the Emerald Dream that allows the animal spirits and people especially in tune with nature to freely pass between the netherworld and The Dream after death. This is why Night Elves, unlike say Orcs or Humans, can become one with nature upon death as a nature spirit (wisp), and even be reborn as Ancients. This would also explain why the Trolls in Moonglade refer to wisps and Ancient Guardians as Loa.

As for their command of storms and hurricanes, I honestly have nothing for you. But if I absolutely had to guess I would tie it to Elune, whatever she is. Perhaps the Emerald Dream isn't just Azeroth, but the natural satellite, nearest star and solar system proper which all affect the nature and life of the planet. I would say that Druids call upon the gravitational fields of the Moon and Sun to induce small storms on Azeroth, which both forces can do, and that is how they shape the wind without directly connecting to the spirits of air and The Skywall.

Fire druids make me think that a druid is a person who concentrates almost exclusively on a single elemental facet of the world, with an emphasis on the living creatures related to that facet - most druids focus on the spirit of the wilds, gaining the powers of beasts and nature. Flame druids focus on fire, and the creatures of flame.

We might also see air, water, and earth druids later on that become various elemental life-forms.

Please gods this. I don't know about Druids controlling the elements without the Elemental Planes merging into Azeroth and thus falling under the Emerald Dream, but I've spent the past two days swimming around as an orca in Vashj'ir and I would kill for a water themed expansion and some more water forms. After all, oceanic life is still an essential part of nature and there is no reason Druids should not commune with it more strongly. Druids of the Claw? Druids of the Talon? How about the Druids of the Flipper? That's what I'm talking about! Turning into a Feral shark, calling on dolphins like Aquaman. Mmmmm.

[Aquamonkey]

Shamen ask for aid from the elemental spirits bound in the Elemental Plane, and can also draw on animal spirits and their ancestors.

Thing about that is it has nothing to do with the Elemental Plane. Elements and elementals are not native to that plane, it was a prison crafted for the elementals of Azeroth because they were enslaved by the Old Gods here. Elements roamed freely across Azeroth before that, just like they do on other worlds.

[ZeroA]

Imo its pretty simple : Shaman are spiritual guides and practitioners, not of the divine, but of the very elements. Unlike some other mystics, shaman commune with forces that are not strictly benevolent. The elements are chaotic, and left to their own devices, they rage against one another in unending primal fury. It is the call of the shaman to bring balance to this chaos. Acting as moderators among earth, fire, water, and air, shaman summon totems that focus the elements to support the shaman’s allies or punish those who threaten them-From WoWWiki. Druids dont interact with malevolent forces,they love and feel nature as if they were one . Shamans dont have to be neccesarily good anyways , do you remember Garrosh's dark shamans?

[Friendlyimmolation]

doesn't help that blizzard kicked shaman totems in the balls so many time that the aren't even the first thing many people think of when they think of shaman.

[Jaspias]

druids manipulate life energy directly, while shaman control the basic elements that create that life

[Bluey111]

Shamans control the elements, Druids control the spirits of nature

[Deleted]

Druids use the powers of life as well as arcane.
Shamans use the power of the primordial elements.
Both life and the elements have some similar powers but they are not the same.

[Frontenac]

Druids and shamans are both animists : everything that exists has a soul, a spirit. Each element has a spirit. Each pebble, each drop of water, each gust of wind, each spark, has a spirit. That becomes more complexe when you think that composit beings, aven ones made by human hands, have a spirit. You take stones, that each have a spirit, some wood planks, each with a spirit and you build a house with them that will also have a spirit.

From what I understand, shamans are "micro" animists : they commune primarily with the elements. Druids are macro animists : they commune with the spirits of animals, plants and the spirits who control the forces of nature (like Aessina). A shaman could create a storm by directly communing with the spirits of air. A druid will do so by communing with the spirits overlooking the weather.

[Raedwulf]

The elements in Warcraft Lore are not just abstract forces, but very real factions that were fighting amongst themselves before the titans came to azeroth. I always assumed that when the Shamans talked about the elements, they were referencing these forces. The druids, however, draw upon the power of living things. They're strength comes from nature.

[Blithe]

I've always seen Druid's as sort of a sub-class of Shaman; instead of dealing with the very make up of the universe, they deal with the natural life of it.

I guess, think of it as the difference between Chemistry (Shaman) and Biology (Druid)...?

[Wildmoon]

First of all, people need to realize that Shamanism and Druidism are arts of magic not types of magic. They channel it differently and they draw power from different source.

Shamanism is about spirits and especially the elemental spirits. Shamans get their power from spirits by whatever means suitable for them. They creat a hurricane by having the spirit of air lend them its power. They act as the mediator between real world and spirit world. You can see that shamans shapeshift into spirit wolfs but the key word is "spirit" wolf. It means they don't shift into living animal.

Druidism is about the world itself. The living and breathing world. Druids revere spirits,ancients and whatever like all Night Elfs do but that's not the point. Druidism is the art about learning the secrets of the world. They tap into the code of nature in order to harness its power. The power of living world. The wind,the trees,the animals and anything the nature has to offer.

When Malfurion grew an arrow to suck Xavius dry, he didn't ask anyone but he had the power and knowledge to accelerate the growth of a wood. When he creates a storm, he harness the power of the nature around him to create it. Why staying in Emerald Dream is a benefit for druids? It's because Emerald Dream is the world in its purest form and the blueprint of the world. Druids can study the world at its most fundamental form there thus helping them to have deeper knowledge of the world.

The earth spirit and the very earth beneath our feet are not the same thing. The earth spirit is a spirit which is closely related to the earth and likely originated from the earth itself. The earth beneath out feet is not a sentient being. Druids treat them as a living being but they are not senteint in the sense of the spirit,the animal.

It doesn't mean that druids do not deal with spirits at all. They do but in limited fashion. Their art is not focused there unlike shamans.

[Deleted]

I believe (could be wrong), in Warcraft terminology: shamans interact with the Elements, Druids dont. At all. They more or less work with "nature" (I don't know if they have a word for it).

It's why in Cata the Druids don't do anything basically except defend themselves. Because what they do isn't related to the elements.

If you notice, as far as I can remember, Druids never work with elementals. Only Shamans do.

The Earthmother? (As in.. Mother Nature :P)